Since, thanks to God's help, we pro-lifers managed to squeak out a limited victory on the partial birth abortion ban, we should think about how to best move forward.

I read a good article the other day on the recent supreme court ruling upholding the ban on partial birth abortions and of all things, India & China.

It seems that many in the governments of those nations want to ban sonograms, because with the device parents of course can tell whether they are going to have a boy or a girl.  Once the parents know they will be having a girl, they often choose to abort the baby and start over until they get a boy.  Of course some officials in both governments are blaming the whole problem on General Electric, the evil capitalists who invented the sonogram machine ;)  In any case, sex-selective abortions causes demographc problem for them, and at least the governments involved are aware enough to understand that.

The author of the article I read mentioned that since pro-lifers were successfull in getting partial birth abortion banned mainly because it was something upon which reasonable people of all political stripes could agree, that we should follow up and consider proposing legislation that would ban aborting a child simply because it was the wrong gender or color.  This sort of law would be especially auspicious if we ever manage to find a genetic marker for homosexuality.

Surely reasonable people and indeed, most political action groups could agree that parents should not be allowed to abort a baby simply because it was a girl, or because a baby had a chance to be gay, or because in cases of some infidelity or other circumstance the baby was the "wrong" color. 

Another good example is that while mandating parental consent might be difficult in some states, legislation that mandates that parents or guardians of minors be notified either before or after the abortion would meet less opposition.  Certainly reasonable people on both sides of the abortion issue would be in favor of parental notification in the case of minors.

To carry the notion farther, the author mentioned for example, banning abortions for certain kinds of birth defects.  This would force people to consider both a deformity and the child, but at the same time would tug at them to be merciful as well.  For example, it might be possible (I do not know) to determine that an unborn baby was likely to be born deaf; if so, pro-lifers should propose legislation that would prohibit parents from aborting the baby on account of it's deafness.  Is it better to kill a baby because it is deaf, or to allow it to live?  Most reasonable people - along with the various political groups that lobby for the rights of the handicapped - would come down on the side of mercy; that the deaf child should be allowed to live. 

Along with the reasonable notions of mandating that clinics show parents the sonogram and that nurse give an explanation regarding heartbeat and general condition of baby, the idea of limiting abortions in specific cases upon which we all agree could be expanded across the wide spectrum of circumstances and disabilities until eventually, the point would be obvious that both morally and as a practical matter (i.e. the adverse psychological affects on the mother), abortion is not a viable solution to anything.  This effort would involve lots of work.  Someone with medical background would need to make a list of all the deformaties for which we can currently test, update that list as medical diagnostic techniques progresses, and periodically going to the trouble of developing and submitting approriate legislation.

Keep in mind that orginially Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was limited; it was considered as a war measure and only applied to slaves who were slaves in the rebel states at the time of the beginning of the Civil War.  However because it highlighted the truth regarding the moral bankrupcy and obvious untenability of slavery under our legal system, it was quickly expanded and all the slaves were freed, but for the first few years, it was quite limited.

Of course the main thing to do is to thank God for the small victories, and keep praying!